A Question of Latitude

It’s started a bit later than usual but I see the Courier Mail has kicked-off its annual campaign for the introduction of daylight saving in Queensland. Sigh.

Most of Australia has daylight saving over spring and summer but Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory don’t. Western Australia has a similar campaign for daylight saving every 12-15 years, followed by a vote, which finds that the majority are still against it. They have their very own timezone so being three hours behind most of the east coast is only slightly more inconvenient than being two hours behind. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone that the Northern Territory doesn’t have it because it is just accepted that things are different up there. In Queensland though it is quite the hot topic. Polemic, even.

Some arguments for and against make sense: we do share a timezone with NSW, Victoria and Tasmania so not putting the clocks forward means Queensland is out of sync with the rest of the east coast.  On the other hand Queensland is huge so the climate is quite different (read:  hotter) up north and out west so the majority outside the south east corner won’t have a bar of daylight saving.  But everyone can add and subtract one hour, can’t they?  Can’t they?? Not much you can do about the sun in Birdsville still blazing at 7pm, except go to the (air-conditioned) pub.

There are also economic arguments because...sorry, nodded off.  But you know, time zones - every country has them.  Some have several.  They manage.

Other arguments for and against are just mad: the release of state cabinet papers several years back showed that ministers had warned against daylight saving because of worries it would fade the curtains and confuse the dairy cows. And some people speak of not having daylight hours after work in summer for recreational activities as some sort of outrageous personal affront, sort of like when Elton John complained that the wind was too windy (this was before he went to rehab). Or that having daylight saving is the ultimate measure of progressiveness or modernity, rather than say equal access to affordable housing, good schools and medical care.

I’ve done a bit of travelling in my life so I’ve experienced daylight saving and I’ve observed a couple of things. It is great when you are on holidays and you're starting your daily sight-seeing at not the crack of dawn and you have no particular time constraints. It is also great when you are in a country, such as the UK, where the summer days are long, not particularly hot and even after the sun sets there is the benefit of twilight.

Yes, twilight. People in Queensland have only heard of twilight because we’re too close to the equator to have it. And no turning the clocks back or forward will change that; it’s a question of latitude. Sometimes I think people are basing their enthusiasm for daylight saving on their holiday experience of it, rather than the working week version of it they would experience in Brisbane or the Gold Coast. In truth, Brisbane's summers are hot and humid and after work people would be more likely to seek the air-conditioned comfort of the great indoors than go to the park.  It is also a question of climate. Queensland, generally, doesn’t really get cold. Canadians would laugh at what we call winter, even on the Darling Downs, in much the same way we mock the English for thinking 28 degrees is a heatwave. Although I don’t think Canadians would laugh at us because they are, as a people, way too nice and polite.  But in Toronto, people can ice-skate to work.

I totally agree that people who endure long, cold winters which include blizzards that snow them in and keep them housebound and could actually kill them should make the most of any opportunity to spend time in the sun, if only to thaw out. In Queensland spending time in the sun isn’t really a problem. Actually it is a problem because we’re the skin cancer capital of the world. And in my travels I’ve also been to Cairns and it is bloody hot and I was there in August and got a bit sunburnt at dusk so I can only imagine the fiery furnace that is January. So I totally agree that they should dislike daylight saving intensely. I think the sun goes down a bit later there as well and it is like someone turning off the lights but not turning on the air conditioning.

So if anyone asks me, I would say I think daylight saving is good for some places and bad for others and this largely depends on climate and where you are situated on the planet and Queensland’s climate and latitude makes it unsuitable for Queensland.  Splitting the state only shifts the problem of two timezones on the east coast. And the two New Year’s Eve countdowns which currently happen at the Gold Coast/Tweed Heads would be moved to Gympie and who wants to spend New Year’s Eve in Gympie? Apologies to Gympie.

But there is one other thing about this argument that really irritates me. Dare I say “first world problem”? If not having daylight saving is your biggest gripe/disappointment in life (and the way some people talk about it, it seems to be) then lucky you for having a really good life. Perspective please - some people have real problems. Perhaps some of the passion and energy going into the daylight saving debate could be redirected to help solve some of them.